Rich Emerson is CEO of The Climbing Academy Group Ltd and Chair of the Association of British Climbing Walls.

Following a lifetime of climbing and having set up and run his own Management Training Consultancy Rich found himself on a long walk-in to a winter route in Italy with Paul Twomey. On that walk, they started talking about setting up a bouldering wall and by the time they walked out they had decided to team up and give it a go. That was 10 years ago and Rich and Paul soon opened the first of The Climbing Academies. Since then they’ve opened 3 more and there are others in the pipeline.

Over the past 5 years, Rich has also been involved with the Association of British Climbing Walls, most recently as Chair. The ABC represents indoor climbing walls in the UK and has, over the years, developed a set of guidelines that are the basis for running a climbing wall safely. Over the past two years, the organisation has started to support the growth and professionalism of the industry.

Rich is looking forward to sharing some of the outcomes from a recent round of market research the ABC has commissioned with the core statement that climbing is growing!